Starting late makes you look classy – but might also mean you miss out on festive treats. Too early and you will eat all your stocking fillersMy kids’ dad has a rule that nobody can discuss Christmas until his birthday has passed at the end of November…
From energy prices to the new cold war, we were warned about 2021 – back in 1997 | Zoe Williams
Terrorism, tension between China and the US, an uncontrollable plague … Wired’s 24-year-old list of what could go wrong with the world is depressingly familiarIn 1997, when things could only get better, Wired magazine gave over an issue to the raw opti…
What does a stream of raw sewage symbolise? Broken Brexit promises, for one | Zoe Williams
A Lords amendment sought to stop water companies dumping raw sewage – and 265 Tories voted against it. This faecal matter has become a powerful symbol of modern BritainI remember the good ol’ days, when we weren’t always lurching from one crisis to ano…
Don’t blame women for our low birthrate – we need to fix our precarious society
The last time there was a panic about women not having kids, it was because we were smashing glass ceilings. Now many young people simply can’t afford to start familiesDorothy Byrne, the president of Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridg…
Netflix’s Squid Game owes its popularity to anxieties of modern life
It’s the first South Korean drama to top the US TV charts and its core message is ‘can I ever repay this debt?’Squid Game, a Netflix series made in Korea by Hwang Dong-hyuk, was released on 17 September and within 10 days was the platform’s highest ran…
‘You upgrade your phone, why not your marriage?’ The TV show set to send divorce rates soaring
Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage shook the world – and spiked divorce rates. Could the remake, with Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac, be even more controversial? Its director Hagai Levi bares allIn 1973, Ingmar Bergman released Scenes from a Mar…
Thank God I have kids. How else would I have found out how incredibly grating I am? | Zoe Williams
Yes, I don’t say ‘Catwoman’ fast enough, yes, I saw Nirvana at Reading festival in 1992, and, yes, I have been pronouncing ‘Marvel’ wrongly for an extremely long time. I accept that that’s a lot to cope withThe correct way to pronounce Marvel, as in Ca…
The lesson of the fuel crisis? Hell hath no fury like a lorry driver scorned | Zoe Williams
Whether you consider the petrol blockades of 2000 or this year’s anger over shortages, it’s clear that farmers and hauliers are genius protestersI remember the last petrol crisis, in 2000, although when I say “remember” I mean I was there – I have very…
Can a mother ever be good enough? I know what my son would say … | Zoe Williams
My almost 14-year-old is annoyed that I think his birthday is a bigger deal for me than it is for him. Still, it will always be my special dayI was casually telling my son, before his 14th birthday this week, why it was a bigger deal for me than it was…
‘You have to be a control freak’: Mike Leigh on 50 years of film-making
At 78, with three Baftas and a Palme d’Or under his belt, the director still sees himself as an outsider. He talks about Hollywood’s obsession with big names, his determination to portray ‘real people’ – and being accused of pretensionInterviewing Mike…